Fortnightly Bulletin 10th January 2019

Dear Parents / Guardians,

Happy New Year to you all! We hope you had a lovely Christmas break. Our news is as follows:

Primary Debating Competition: Our debating committee, Kate Byrne, Libby Fallon, Ciara Dunne, Ellen Adlum, Emma Keenan and Maura Ennis (Captain) will take on Caragh National School next Thursday 17th January in the first round of the competition. We will be opposing the motion ‘People should be fined for not recycling. Best of luck girls!

Catholic Schools Week: This year Catholic Schools Week will be celebrated from Sunday 27th January to Sunday 3rd February. This year’s theme is ‘Celebrating the Work of our own Catholic Schools. A whole school assembly will be held on Friday 1st February to celebrate Catholic Schools’ Week. Because we are a Catholic School, this is a very special week in our calendar and it will be celebrated in many different ways in each classroom.

St.Brigid’s Day: We will also celebrate St. Brigid’s Day, the patron saint of our school on Friday1st February. Pupils will tell stories and sing hymns about Brigid’s life. In preparation for this, the pupils will learn about Brigid’s life and the customs and traditions associated with our county saint. Some creative students will make St. Brigid’s crosses and also help some of the younger pupils to make them.

Grandparents Day: On Wednesday 30th January all grandparents are invited to visit their grandchildren’s classrooms. This invitation to grandparents affirms and values their place not only in the lives of their grandchildren, but in the community in general. This annual visit has become a highlight of Catholic Schools Week at Bunscoil Bhríde. Children love to welcome their grandparents to their classroom. Each class will entertain grandparents with poems, songs and stories. Grandparents are also invited to look at children’s artwork and we would encourage them to share their memories and stories with the children. The Bunscoil Bhríde Parents’ Association have kindly volunteered to provide tea/coffee for the visiting grandparents in our school hall. This will hopefully facilitate some banter and reminiscing among our visitors. While we hope lots of grandparents will visit our school on Wednesday the 30th, we are very conscious of the fact that not all children have grandparents living and also that not all grandparents will be able to make it to our school. For this reason, there will be arrangements put in place in all classrooms for the sharing of available grandparents, so nobody will be left out. It will be a fun, warm and welcoming day for all.

Timetable for Grandparents Day

Time.

Class.

9.15 – 9.45

Ms. Ruttledge – Junior Infants. Room 1

Ms. Kelly– Junior & Senior Infants. Room 2

9.45 – 10.15

Ms. Beary/Ms. Greally – Senior Infants. Room 5

Ms Rowley – 1st and 2nd Class. Room 6

10.15 – 10.45

Ms. Fogarty – 1st Class. Room 4

Ms. Ryan – 2nd and 3rd Class. Room 3

11.00 – 11.30

Ms. McIntyre – 3rd Class. Room 11 (upstairs)

Ms. Dillon –4th and 5th Class. Room 12 (upstairs)

11.30 – 12.00

Ms. Collum – 4th class. Room 8 (upstairs)

Ms. De Faoite - 5th class. Room 9 (upstairs)

12.00 – 12.30

Ms. O’Halloran - 6th class. Room 7 (upstairs)

Credit Union Quiz: The annual Credit Union Quiz will take place on Friday 1st February in the Boy’s School at 7.00pm. Pupils representing our school will wear their school uniform to the quiz. Teams from Bunscoil Bhríde have enjoyed great success at the quiz in recent years. We would like to wish all our teams the best of luck.

Basketball: On Monday 14th January our basketball team will play Gaelscoil Cill Dara in the first leg of the semi-finals in Kildare at 1pm. We will host Gaelscoil Cill Dara in the second leg the following week. We wish the girls the very best of luck.

Stay Safe: Senior Infants, Second Class, Fourth Class and Sixth Class begun the Stay Safe programme next week and will continue with the programme over the coming weeks. I would like to remind you again about the importance of discussing the issues covered in class with your child at home. The lessons covered over the course of the programme are as follows: Feeling Safe and Unsafe, Bullying, Touches, Secrets and Telling and Strangers. More information about the programme can be obtained on the website; www.staysafe.ie

Relationships and Sexuality Education (R.S.E.): R.S.E. lessons will begin in Junior Infants, First Class, Third Class, Fifth Class and Sixth Class from this week / next week onwards. (Sixth Class will begin RSE lessons once they have completed the Stay Safe programme.) You will receive a letter tomorrow detailing the content to be covered with your child’s class and it would be very helpful if you could discuss what is being learnt at school with your daughter(s) at home. Please feel free to contact the school with any queries you may have.

Bake Sale for Sr.Celine: Well done to the Sixth Class girls and their teacher, Ms. O’Halloran, who organised a wonderful Bake Sale in December in aid of Sr. Celine’s Brazilian Fund. A total of €608.25 was raised from the Bake Sale. I would like to sincerely thank all who contributed so generously and provided us with so many delicious baked good and prizes.

Toilet Bag: Reminder – all children must have a small bag at school containing a small face cloth/towel for the drying of hands. There is no need for soap, as soap dispensers are located in all toilets. Please remember to change and wash this towel regularly.

Enrolments for 2019/20: We are now enrolling for September. Closing date for enrolments to Junior Infants for the 2019/20 school year is Friday 31st January. Enrolment forms have been distributed to the playschools / crèche in the town and are available from Catríona’s office and our school website www.bunscoilbhride.ie. Completed enrolment forms must be returned to the school no later than 31st January.

Oral Language: The theme for the month of January is ‘Questioning’. All classes will be focusing on this theme for the month and we would ask that you, the parents support us at home, by encouraging your child to pose fully-formed questions and ensuring that they have knowledge of and make use of all the question words (What? Why? Where? When? Who? How? etc.). We would also encourage you to discuss with them what they’ve learnt in school on this topic.

School Website: Our newly revamped school website; www.bunscoilbhride.ie is being constantly updated. It is packed full of photographs and details of activities and events that have taken place in the school and is well worth browsing through. We would encourage you to check it regularly to keep up to date with life at Bunscoil Bhríde.

Dates for the Diary:

Date

Details of Event

Friday 1st February

Credit Union Quiz for teams from Third to Sixth Classes at 7pm in the Boy’s School.

Wednesday 30th January

Grandparents’ Day

Monday 18th February to Friday 22nd February

Midterm Break – School will be closed

Thursday 28th February

Green School Assessment

Sunday 10th March

Our 5/10K Fun Run

Monday 11th March

Sixth Class Retreat in Mount Saint Anne’s

Thursday 7th March

World Book Day. Non-uniform day: All classes will dress as a character from their favourite book

Sunday 24th March

Confirmation at 2.00pm in Rathangan Church

Wednesday 27th March

Confirmation Photos at 9.00am.

Wednesday 28th February

First Confessions for 2nd class in the church at 7.30pm

Monday 18th March

Bank Holiday – School will be closed

Dangers of the Internet: While the internet is a wonderful resource, I would like to remind you that it can also pose many dangers to your child. While the school has safeguards in place with regard to pupil internet/website access at school, use outside school falls under parental responsibility. Children should never be allowed access to the internet at home without supervision. All children are going home today with a booklet entitled ‘A Better Internet’ It contains useful information with regard to internet safety and I would urge you to read it.

Active School Committee: The Active School Committee hopes that all families in our school will take on the 5/10K challenge of our Bunscoil Bhríde Fun Run. If we all begin training now we can be fit and ready for the big day on Sunday 10th March. Training takes place in Rathangan with Couch to 5K group on Tuesday and Thursdays at 7.30 at the walking track in the soccer grounds. Everyone is welcome. See below for details about registration;

All classes in the school are stepping up their training and building up their fitness.

Names on Uniforms: Please ensure that your child’s name is clearly marked on her uniform and tracksuit jumper.

Heavy school-bags: We are attempting to address the issue of children carrying school bags that are too heavy to and from school, by asking them to unpack fully their bags every morning and only repack books marked for homework. Your help in tackling this issue is required as many of the items contained in school-bags are unnecessary ancillary items e.g. multiple heavy pencil-cases etc. Please go through your daughter’s bag with her and remove any unnecessary items.

Late Arrivals/Early Departures and Absences: Children arriving late to school or leaving early must be signed in/out by an adult. All absences must be explained by a note presented to the class teacher upon the child’s return to school. Children arriving to school after 9.45am must also present an explanatory note to the class teacher. We appreciate your cooperation in this matter. The sign in/out folder is kept outside the office just inside the main entrance.

Coming to school: Reminder – we are not responsible for children before 9.00am. You are asked to drop your child(ren) to school as close to 9.00am as possible. We will provide supervision for children and open the school on wet mornings at 8.50am. There is no supervision or shelter for children before 8.50am and we would ask that you do not drop them off before this time.

Kind regards,

Maria Rogerson

Note from Parents’ Association

5/10k Fun Walk/Run. Preparations for the Fun Run are gathering pace. Our aim is to have a fun community day while raising much needed funds for our school. The PA would welcome sponsorship from members of the local community to cover the cost of prizes, medals and refreshments. If you would like to provide financial support/spot prizes please contact Evelyn (our treasurer) at pabunscoilbhride@gmail.com or Catriona at the school on 045 542540.

St. Brigid’s Day Crosses. Following many requests from the local community we are making St. Brigid’s Day Crosses this year. We are looking for volunteers to help make the crosses in the school on Thursday 24th and Friday 25th January. 6th class pupils will provide guidance and support. Crosses will be available to purchase from the Parish office and the school on Grandparents Day